WASHINGTON — A CIA contractor holding a top secret clearance was arrested Friday morning and charged with passing national defense information to a person who runs a Substack publication, the Justice Department announced.
Ian A. Brinksman, 42, of Washington, was taken into custody by the FBI after agents searched his home. A criminal complaint charges him with unlawfully transmitting national defense information.
Prosecutors allege Brinksman gave the material to someone with whom he had an ongoing personal relationship. The complaint identifies that person only as “Individual 1” and says she maintains an online publication on Substack. According to the department, she repeatedly posted classified information there.
A fundraising article Individual 1 reportedly published in September claimed she had produced reporting based on classified assessments from the agency, the complaint says. On her social media profile, she wrote, “I also accept leaks.”
Brinksman went to work in 2020 for a U.S. government agency based in the Eastern District of Virginia, according to the complaint. Two years later, he became a systems integration developer for “Company 1,” a contractor to the same agency. He held a top secret clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information throughout the period covered by the charges.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the arrest followed a referral from his agency and described Brinksman as a contractor who provided services to the CIA. “There is absolutely zero tolerance for leaking,” Ratcliffe said.
John A. Eisenberg, the assistant attorney general for national security, accused Brinksman of reaching “far outside his own duties” to obtain some of the country’s most closely guarded secrets. Eisenberg said Brinksman handed them to a romantic partner he knew planned to publish them.
“That is not carelessness.”
Eisenberg added that the conduct, if proven at trial, would be a grave violation of the Espionage Act.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said the affidavit describes a contractor “who exempted himself” from the federal law protecting classified information. FBI Director Kash Patel called the protection of national secrets a top counterintelligence priority for the bureau.
The department’s announcement did not include a response from Brinksman or name an attorney representing him.
The FBI’s Chicago Field Office is leading the investigation, with substantial help from the Washington Field Office. Trial Attorneys Eli Ross and Kathryn DeMarco of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Vito Iaia of the Eastern District of Virginia.
The charges are allegations, and Brinksman is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
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